Asus to launch Xbox-branded handheld gaming console later this year

Industry insider Jez Corden mentioned an Xbox-branded console arriving later this year. Microsoft wouldn’t manufacture it in-house. Instead, it would contract a major player in the PC market. The Verge’s Tom Warren has now fished out more information about the mystery device and found out who the mystery company would be via a paywalled report.

For starters, Jez’s report stated it was internally referred to as Project Keenan. Tom says it is actually Project Kennan. Apparently, it is a part of Microsoft’s plan to bridge the gap between Xbox consoles and PCs, something that is becoming increasingly apparent with its “this is an Xbox” marketing strategy. And the OEM that gets the privilege to build the mystery console is none other than Asus.

Asus sounds as good as a candidate as any. It was, after all, one of the first mainstream players to mimic the Steam Deck’s design with the original ROG Ally. That could explain why the ROG Ally X was an incremental upgrade that fixed design flaws found on its predecessor, with no upgrade for the somewhat-ageing Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC. Asus is busy at work developing the world’s first Xbox-branded console. Because it is a Microsoft-endorsed handheld, the Asus/Xbox handheld will run an optimized version of Windows 11.

Once again, its fate will be determined by what SoC it uses. Asus is no stranger to working with AMD, so a Ryzen Z2 series chip seems like the most plausible candidate. The Z2 Go might not have enough firepower to run a full Windows 11 install and games, leaving us with the Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen Z2 Extreme. The latter will be better suited for handheld workloads because it has a mix of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores. The latter can be earmarked for background tasks, resulting in some extra battery life.

An 8-core/32 CU Strix Halo chip (Ryzen AI Max 385) would be ideal, but that would require some serious underclocking to be viable in a handheld form factor, not to mention robust cooling and an equally powerful battery to keep it juiced up. Worst case, we end up with something like the Acer Nitro Blaze 11.